Ubuntu Desktop Training

225 / 335

Figure 8.18: Adding New Radio Station

20.You can add many more Internet radio stations in the same way and listen to your favourite radio stations with just a click of your mouse.

8.3Playing and Extracting Audio CDs

Note:

Sound Juicer is the default application available in Ubuntu for playing and extracting audio compact discs (CDs). It is an easy-to- use CD player and ripping tool that requires minimal user intervention in playing and extracting audio CDs. Using Sound Juicer, you can play audio tracks directly from the CD and extract audio tracks and convert them into audio files. Sound Juicer allows you to extract audio files into the following three formats:

•Ogg Vorbis: Ogg vorbis is a free, unpatented and open source alternative to the proprietary MP3 format. Like the MP3 format, it discards parts of the sound that humans cannot normally hear. An Ogg Vorbis file is typically a tenth of the size of a WAV format file containing the same content.

•FLAC: FLAC stands for Free Lossless Audio Codec. It is an unpatented, open source audio format. Unlike MP3 or Ogg Vorbis, FLAC compresses audio without discarding any information. A FLAC file is typically half the size of a WAV file containing the same content.

•WAV: WAV is short for Waveform Audio Format. It is an uncompressed format typically used for short snippets of sound and voice recordings.

To know more about Ogg Vorbis and FLAC audio format, visit the following Web sites:

Ubuntu Desktop Training

226 / 335

•http://www.vorbis.com/faq/

•http://flac.sourceforge.net/

8.3.1Playing Audio CDs

1.Insert an audio CD in the CD drive of your computer. The Sound Juicer CD player and ripper is launched automatically. To start Sound Juicer manually, click the Applications menu, point to Sound & Video and then click Audio CD Extractor.

Figure 8.19: Launching Sound Juicer

2.Sound Juicer’s main interface is displayed. When Sound Juicer detects a CD, it examines the CD and tries to search the Internet to locate information about the CD’s content. If you are connected to the Internet, Sound Juicer will retrieve the CD artist, title, and track data from MusicBrainz.org.

To play all the tracks sequentially, you can simply click the Play button. NOTE:

MusicBrainz.org is a community-maintained online database, which contains data on over 360,000 published albums.

Ubuntu Desktop Training

227 / 335

Figure 8.20: Playing Audio CD

Notice that Sound Juicer has fetched the track information from MusicBrainz.org. In the upper part of the Sound Juicer window, you can see the basic information about the disc, including title, artist, genre and total duration. The lower part of the window displays a list of tracks, each with its full title, artist and duration.

3.To play only the tracks of your choice, select the particular tracks by selecting the corresponding checkboxes and then click the Play button.

Figure 8.21: Selecting the Song tracks

Ubuntu Desktop Training

228 / 335

4. You can now enjoy listening to your favourite music tracks.

Figure 8.22: Playing the Selected Tracks

8.3.2Extracting Audio CDs

If you want to listen to your favourite music tracks without needing to insert a CD every time, you can create a copy of the CD and extract the music tracks on your computer.

1.Insert the audio CD and click the Extract button. However, if you want to define the audio quality, format and the location where the files would be stored, click Preferences on the Edit menu. This displays the Preferences dialogue box.

Ubuntu Desktop Training

229 / 335

Figure 8.23: Defining Preferences For Audio Files

2.You can use the Preferences dialogue box to define a number of things such as how the folder hierarchy should be saved, how the files should be named and whether to eject the CD automatically after the tracks are extracted.

In the last section of the Preferences dialogue box, you can define the file format in which the tracks would be stored on your computer. Based on your requirements, select any one format from the Output Format drop-down list.

Nice to Know:

You can also extract CD audio files to the proprietary, non-free MP3 format. Instructions for extracting audio files into the MP3 format can be found in the help for Sound Juicer. Go to Help>Content and then navigate to the Preferences section.

Ubuntu Desktop Training

230 / 335

Figure 8.24: Specifying Audio Format

3.Each of these file format has its own customisable profile. Depending on the type of the music track and the destination where it has to be stored, you may need to customise these file formats. Click the Edit Profiles button, then select the desired profile and click the Edit button to edit the profile of the selected file format according to your needs.

Figure 8.25: Editing Audio Profile

4.The Editing profile dialogue box for the selected audio profile is displayed. You can edit the audio profile according to your requirements and the click Close to exit.

Ubuntu Desktop Training

231 / 335

Figure 8.26: Customising Audio Profile

5.You can also use the Preferences dialogue box to define the location where you want the audio files to be stored on your computer. By default, Sound Juicer stores the audio files in the Home directory. To define a location of your choice, select a directory from the Music Folder drop-down list and click Close to exit the Preferences dialogue box.

Figure 8.27: Specifying Audio File Location

6.After configuring your preferences, you can go ahead and start extracting all the tracks by clicking the Extract button. However, if you want to exclude some tracks, deselect them by clearing the corresponding check boxes.

Depending on the speed of your computer, the extracting process can take a long time. You can watch the total progress of the process in the lower left section of the Sound Juicer window.

Ubuntu Desktop Training

232 / 335

Figure 8.28: Extracting Song Tracks

7.Sound Juicer notifies you after the selected tracks are extracted successfully. Click Open to view the tracks copied on your hard disk.

Figure 8.29: Viewing Copied Tracks

8.The CD audio tracks are now copied as audio files on your hard disk. You can listen to these tracks by simply doubleclicking them.